Mahmoud Darwish was a Palestinian poet and academic world renowed for his beautiful, and fiercely national, writings. He tackled pertinent and controversial issues such as exile, identity, and watan (homeland) with eloquent poems and reasoned articles. The selection below is of special significance now, as the Palestinian people turn to the world seeking recognition of their sovereignty and identity. This call for sovereignty echoes through the words of an excerpt from Darwish’s poem “Diary of a Palestinian Wound”, written in 1969:
Ah my intractable wound!
My country is not a suitcase
I am not a traveler
I am the lover and the land is the beloved.
No comments:
Post a Comment